So Rabbs (real name Adam) and I departed Friday, September 5 for Melbourne from Sydney. We decided to take his car to give mine a rest. It just so happened he had the same make, model, and year car as I did; a 91 Toyota Camry, just a jewel of a car. Rabbs had to be back in a week so we only had 7 days to get there and back. Melbourne is about 900 km’s (540 miles) south-southwest of Sydney. We decided to stay the first few nights at my friend John’s father Jim’s house in Tuross Head. And since it was Australian fathers day, John and his brother Davo were going to be there as well. It worked out great. Tuross Head is about a 5-hour drive south of Sydney. There is a quicker road to Melbourne that runs inland but we wanted to take the coast road. There are so many great surfing spots around this area; many of them never surfed because you need to hike down to them. The water is cold at this time of the year so hardly any of the surf spots have many people. There are lots of reefs, headlands, and point breaks.
Jim, John’s dad, was a great host cooking us food and letting us stay in his spare rooms. He was always happy to have company. I caught up with him and let him know how my travels were up the coast. I showed him some pictures and thanked him much for the car he pretty much gave me.
Saturday morning Rabbs, John, Davo and I went exploring to find surf. It is an adventure going down dirt roads in the area. These are spots I would have never checked as they were off the hidden track. Most of the spots didn’t look too good. After checking a few breaks Rabbs and I surfed Muroya (pronounced Maria) Rivermouth. A big swell had just hit the area. It was about 5 foot with somewhat sloppy conditions. The water was cold, about mid 50’s F so I wore booties and a hood. We caught a few waves but got cold quick.
Later that afternoon John and I surfed Mullimburra Point, which was a right hand point break that is somewhat of a hidden spot. It only breaks on a big swell and the winds and swell were working in the right direction for it to go. It was about 6 foot with about 10-12 foot faces. It pushes a lot of water through and has a slow face that makes it a cruizy wave once you’re on it. You jump off the reef to get in the wave, but if you’re scared you can always paddle from the beach. I took a few spills and only got one good wave. It was a solid heavy wave for me. There were only 3 other people there at first and no one by the end of the session.
That night John, Davo, and I went to Bateman’s Bay, which was about an hours drive north of Tuross. Bateman’s Bay was a nice town to check out. We stayed with John’s good mate and his wife in town.
The following day Rabbs and I surfed Mullimburra Point again. It was a bit cleaner and was about 6 foot again. Another massive day for me. There was nobody out when we got there. My friend Brogan drove past with his family. Brogan was home for Fathers Day and lives in Muroya, just north of Tuross. I stayed with Brogan my first week in Australia as he lives with Benny in Manly. Brogan’s brother Xavier was in town and had sliced his chin open with his board on one of his waves; he ended up getting a few stitches. You can get an idea of the magnitude of the wave. He was on his way out as we were headed in. It turns out John is best mates with Xavier. Brogan told us to come by to his place later after the surf. Rabbs and I ended up scoring some decent waves that day.
After the surf we took Brogan up for his offer to come by. I didn’t know what I was in for. He lived on an amazing 140-acre farm with cows, bulls, a sheep, and lots of kangaroos. He had a beautiful house and very friendly parents. They were getting ready to feed their cows and asked us to join. Rabbs and I jumped in their truck and headed to get hay in their barn. The cows had to be hand fed since the grass had died from the cold. It was a great experience feeding the cows and driving around this massive area of land. Brogan’s family breeds and sells the baby cows. So they don’t do any butchering and don’t have any cows that give milk. They keep two bulls to reproduce with all the female cows. The bulls were massive and are kept in a separate fenced in area.
The following day Monday Rabbs and I were ready to push on further south. Rabbs had lined up a place to stay just west of Bells Beach at Anglesea. His girlfriend’s Auntie had a place down there. We woke up early and drove through some coastal towns and checked surf at a few places. Since there was a heavy southerly wind Jim had told us to check Pambula Rivermouth. It was protected to the south by a headland. It was a bit closed out when we checked it but probably would have been our best bet for surf as we later found out.
The drive south was really nice, lots of rainforest with tall trees surrounding the highway. After this we drove into the northern end of Ben Boyd’s National Park. The waves were blown out from the winds. It was a nice national park with camping. Then we checked out Eden’s main beach, this was the next closest city to the south. It was small, windy, and cold. Since there weren’t many breaks any place close to the south we decided to get in anyway. It ended up being too windy and cold and the waves were blahhh. We got out pretty quick and warmed up to a nice hot pie at the local bakery.
We drove straight through Melbourne on our way down and planned to come back later in the week. The bridges we passed under by the highway were lit up with fluorescent lights and the city looked nice. The place we stayed at was about 100 km’s southwest of Melbourne. We stayed in Anglesea, which is a small town on the beach; it is just west of Bell’s Beach. Bell’s Beach is know from the famous surf scene in the movie Point Break, where the main character Body surfs the 50-year storm there. I have heard that the actual wave that they filmed though is from Waikiki in Hawaii. Bell’s Beach is also where Ripcurl hosts the World Championships for surfing. Another bigger town, Torquay, is east of Bell’s and the town is lined with the most massive surf and skate shops I have seen all in one place. The main shops were Ripcurl, Globe, and Quicksilver, but there were many more. There were more surf shops than anything else in town. There was a library and a nice skatepark next to the library. There was a cool halfpipe in our town, Anglesea. I checked a map of all the surrounding towns along the beach areas and each one had its own skatepark
The place we stayed in was amazing, it was a two level house with 3 bedrooms, a massive living room with a big screen tv, and fireplace. Rabbs and I had it to ourselves for the week too, it was great.
The following morning, Tuesday, we checked out a bunch of surf spots using my surf guide. The surf at Anglesea didn’t look to promising so we headed closer to Bell’s Beach. Bell’s and a spot adjacent to Bell’s called Wikipop were both looking good. Wikipop is a faster shallower wave and Bell’s was a slower nice powerful wave. I decided to do Bell’s as there was only 4 other people out when Wikipop had about 8. They both break right. The same carpark leads to both breaks. Rabbs had to do some internet things and needed a surf hood so I was going in alone. Now the weather and water temperature is the coldest down in these parts as we are on the southern end of Australia and it is the coldest time of the year for the water. We were in the Southern Ocean. I had a hood, booties, and a 3/2 wetsuit. The water temp was about 10-12C or 50-53F, I got in and felt freezing. You need at least a 4/3 suit in these parts.
After about 15 minutes in the water I was ready to leave but held out for an hour. I got some fun rides. My first wave blew my right contact out while I was riding it, the white water just whipped by my face with such force to blow it out. I have lost contacts in the surf before but never while I was up on the wave. So for the rest of the session I was surfing half blind and frozen. Regardless I had a fun time. After I got out there were over 10 people in the water. Everyone was very nice in the water, as a matter of fact everyone I have met out in the surf always gives you a gah day mate and usually starts a conversation with you. Typically in California you have to push a conversation on a stranger out in the water. But I have concluded that friendliness in the water goes hand and hand with how many people are in the water. The less amount of people in the water makes people happier I think and more likely to strike a conversation. Needless to say it took a while to warm up from that surf.
The following day I got up to surf in the AM again. Rabbs was working hard on his work plan for a job he is trying to get in Singapore so he didn’t make it out. The swell had dropped a foot or two and was about 3-4 foot at Bell’s Beach and Wikipop. Wikipop had over 15 people on it and looked good. Bell’s Beach had only about 10 and was more spread out so I decided to go there. I got some fun waves but it was a bit closed out. It was warmer outside, just over 60F so the water didn’t feel as painfully cold.
That afternoon Rabbs and I headed down the Great Ocean Road. The Great Ocean Road runs along the ocean at the edge of cliffs and forests. It is a beautiful drive that everyone should do if they are down this way. The town we were staying in, Anglesea, was actually right off the road. There are great surfing beaches, shipwrecks, and other scenic portions of the road. One of them is the 12 apostles; these include large rock masses out in the ocean. It takes about 3 hours one way to make it to the end where the apostles are. Since we didn’t leave till 2 and we wanted surf we never made it to the apostles.
Although we did get surf in at Johanna, a powerful surf break that is a swell magnet. If the area around Anglesea and Bells is small Johanna will have waves. It also has some serious rip currents, which I read in my surf guide. I also got to experience them first hand. Just getting back in was a mission, after paddling in after a wave I was getting nowhere; I had to do the full paddle parallel to the shore to eventually get in. The surf wasn’t very good either, a bit like a washing machine in places. Most of the waves closed out quickly as well. The wind had gotten on it strong by 4pm when we were there. By the time we got out we only had about 40 minutes of daylight so we decided to head back to our place and skip the rest of the drive.
This whole trip Rabbs has been working on a work plan for a finance job in Singapore. He hasn’t had much time to relax with that. During that time though we had to search for free wireless. We scored some free time at the library at Torquey, about 20 minutes east of Anglesea but you only get 30-60 minute blocks. We were able to find free wireless at the camper park in Anglesea and near the BP gas station in Lorne (west of Anglesea). Pretty much we just drove around till we picked up a signal.
So on Thursday we checked a few surf areas in the morning and since they didn’t look good we hit up Bell’s Beach again. It was 3-4 foot with offshore winds and pretty good conditions. This time Rabbs came out as well. There were about 10-12 people but there were plenty of waves. We each got some great rides; my first one was hollow to my surprise but smothered me at the end. A few times some big sets came in and washed everyone away. Bell’s is nice in that you can always paddle around the sets.
So our time on the southern ocean came to an end. Rabbs and I headed to Melbourne for the afternoon. Everyone has told me how great a city Melbourne is so I needed at least a drive through. We didn’t have much time because Rabbs wanted to head to his hometown afterwards and spend some time there. Melbourne is a trendy city with a good music scene. I saw the big crown casino in the heart of the city and a lot of nice architecture along the river that runs through the city. We drove through St. Kilda, a southern suburb along the bay to get some food. We got some $5 pizzas at a nice restaurant so I take it is an affordable place to go out. We spent about 2 hours trying to get back out of Melbourne; there was a load of traffic like most cities. Then we were off to Rabb’s house in Cowra. Cowra is a few hours drive west of Wollongong, an inland farming town.
We got to Rabb’s house late that night. The following day Rabbs and I spent the day backfilling an irrigation trench in his yard for his parents. It felt good to get some hard labor in and earn our keep. He lives on 10-acres of land. It was a very peaceful place away from neighbors and surrounded by dirt roads. Later that day Rabbs and I helped his father make deliveries of refrigerators, washing machines, and freezers. He owns an electronic shop and now mainly just does deliveries. I got to see pretty much most of Cowra from all the driving.
That night we went to Rabb’s sisters house which was about half an hour away. Her and her husband live on a big farm with a lot of sheep and cows. I got to help try and move the sheep into a barn to protect them from the rain as they were getting shaved the following day. I was in the middle of about a hundred sheep just letting out there high pitched bahahahhh sounds. And I was just clapping my hands and chasing these sheep around, I had no idea what I was doing. Another interesting experience for sure.
The following day we shipped back to Sydney. On the way we stopped in the Canola flower fields, really beautiful yellow flowers. After I got back to Sydney I headed over to Benny’s place for a classic Aussie BBQ.
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